All posts tagged police budget

London Mayor Boris Johnson on walkabout in riot-hit Clapham Junction, in South London, yesterday.

London Mayor Boris Johnson was so eager this morning to criticise the government’s planned cuts to the police budget that he didn’t even wait for the interviewer to ask the question.

“If you ask me whether I think there is a case for cutting police budgets in light of these events, then my answer is no,” he volunteered during an interview on BBC Radio 4′s Today Program.

Much to the delight of the opposition Labour Party, Mr. Johnson’s gusto has created a rift between himself–a senior member of the governing Conservative Party–and the government over the police budgets.

Although Mr. Johnson is seen as an ambitious creature with a possible hankering for the role of prime minister, his comments this morning are more likely to have been driven by his goal to win next year’s mayoral elections rather than any desire to undermine Prime Minister David Cameron.

Still, his criticism is a problem for the government because it encapsulates what many voters are likely to be thinking: why exactly is the government cutting the police budget when this week’s riots show they are barely coping as it is?